“We continue to improve traffic on city streets. Volokolamskoye Motorway is currently being upgraded. We have built an overpass to access the Tushinskaya and Spartak metro stations, the new Otkrytiye Arena and to improve local traffic,” Mr Sobyanin noted.

He added that the overpass spanning the Smaller Moscow Belt Railway (SMBR) would be completed in May 2016 and that it would be the last stage of the Volokolamskoye Motorway upgrade.

It took nine months to build the 750-metre overpass, and the number of lanes has increased from four to six in each direction (three lanes on the overpass and on alternate routes).

In all, 4.3 kilometres of new roads, including 2.5 kilometres of alternate routes, have been built in and around Volokolamskoye Motorway.

УThe overpass at the Volokolamskoye Motorway-Stratonavtov Prospekt intersection that was built in nine months will allow us to complete the first stage, as stipulated by the contract, and, in the long run to completely upgrade Volokolamskoye Motorway,Ф said Viktor Tikhonov, director-general of the contracting company.

There are also plans to establish designated transit lanes on alternative routes, to build the 87.5-metre Proyektiruyemy (Planned) Proyezd No. 5219 towards the Spartak metro station, to upgrade three pedestrian underpasses, to relay utility mains and to install 3,600 sound-resistant windows. The entire road structure is now complete.

Signal-free traffic will increase the capacity of this section by 20-25 percent.

The Volokolamsky overpass spanning the SMBR, consisting of a 174-metre motor road and 100 metres of tram tracks is also being upgraded.

The tram section will be widened to 6.9 metres, and the road will have five lanes in each direction, including two designated transit lanes for inbound and outbound traffic.

Under the Transport Infrastructure Development programme, the city has built over 400 kilometres of roads in the past five years. This is 150 percent more than 2006-2010 (168 kilometres). In all, 112 road structures and 139 pedestrian underpasses and overpasses have been built. Eight radial routes have been upgraded, and 150 kilometres of designated transit lanes and 350 bus laybys established.

The city has also upgraded ten MKAD interchanges, and there are plans to build four more by late 2015.